Cmod A7 GPIO Demo

This VHDL project demonstrates the basic use of most of the Cmod-A7's general purpose I/O.

• The two user LEDs are tied to the two push buttons
• The RGB LED is set to smoothly change colors
• The UART bridge outputs a beginning message and a status message whenever a button is pressed

• Basic familiarity with Vivado
  • This experience can be found by walking through our “Getting Started with Vivado” guide

• Cmod A7 FPGA board
• Micro-USB cable

• Vivado Design Suite 2015.X
  • Newer/older versions can be used, but the procedure may vary slightly

Cmod A7 Support Repository – GIT Repo

1.1) Download the repository linked in the download section and place it in the location of your choosing.

1.2) Generate the GPIO project in the Projects folder by following this guide before continuing: How to Generate a Project from Digilent's Github

2.1) Click Generate Bitstream on the left hand menu towards the bottom. Vivado will run through both Run Synthesis and Run Implementation before it generates the bitstream automatically.

Note: If you want, you can click each step by itself in the order of Run Synthesis, Run Implementation and then Generate Bitstream.

3.1) Once you have generated your bit file, Click on the hardware manager and connect to your board by choosing the local server option.

3.2) Click program to load the project onto your Cmod A7.

This portion will help you run the demo and observe all its features.

4.1) UART

Connect a terminal program with the settings 9600 baud rate, 8 bits, one stop bit, and no parity bit. On reset, the board will display “CMOD A7 GPIO/UART DEMO!”



Also whenever a button is pressed, the message “Button press detected!” is sent over UART.



4.2) RGB Led

The RGB Led smoothly transitions between colors. This cannot be changed by the user in this demo


4.3) User push buttons and Leds

When a button is pressed, the corresponding led will light up.